It's Time

Them and us. Time to be counted...

For many reasons, hunting continues to decline, while at the same time personal ownership of guns for self defense is skyrocketing.

The firearms community has long been involved in an inner struggle between many hunters who feel that if you can't hunt with it, you shouldn't be allowed to own it, and those who take the 2nd Amendment seriously. With each passing year, the remaining hunters pay less and less of the bill to keep the major support organizations afloat, but groups such as the NRA continue to treat them as if their use for weapons remains the primary, and indeed most important one.

This is abject nonsense, but they've long since painted their way into a corner and haven't the slightest idea how to become extricated from so narrow-minded a focus. Fact: As minority communities continue to grow, there are more bad guys than ever. Fact: More honest citizens are rallying behind the concept of self-protection. Fact: Far too little has been done to mobilize the enormous resources of 80 million Americans.

And for the love of mercy it wasn't an army of David's (good grief but I detest the vision such a description evokes) that came to the rescue when several Nebraska media outlets began featuring polls to determine if concealed carry was right for Cornland. Several prominent gun boards reported the fact that anti's were taking over the polls, and in less than 24 hours tens of thousands of votes were cast to support Nebraskan gun owners.

NOT Nebraska quail hunters. The bird baggers could care less about the Constitution, all they want is to dust off the 12 gauge come hunting season, come home with some dinner, and begin stocking the freezers. The bird baggers continue to vote anti-gun politicians into office, and it's time to come to the understanding that their goals and ours are disparate, and never the twain shall meet.

Now, I do see more of a focus for gun ownership that isn't attached to bringing home a deer coming from our paid mouthpieces. The NRA is trying to somewhat extricate themselves from Harry the Hunter as the national symbol of The Right To Keep and Bear Arms. This is a good thing.

I am not speaking of something I haven't experienced. I lived in Iowa for 5 years. Sioux City is a town of 90,000 and has one gun range. One. Indoors. And try and get the guy who owns it on the phone, I dare you. A permit to carry is next to impossible unless you personally know the Sheriff or have badgered him long and hard. Badgering him means your car gets stopped for "random" sobriety tests, so beware. Scheels is the 70,000 square foot "sports" emporium at the local mall, and does feature some handguns for sale. Over a thousand shotguns, new and used, some bolt-action rifles, and perhaps two hundred sidearms. Half of them ready for scopes because rifle's aren't permitted for hunting purposes but long barreled handguns are. It is the largest firearm dealer in all of Western Iowa and does not carry, nor will they order, any handguns chambered in G.A.P.. Strike that, they WILL order one if you pay up front and agree not to return it.

The Midwest, and the Northeast hate handguns, period. Most hunters hate handguns, period. Oh, they're alright to plink with now and again, but what busy man has the time to go fooling with a handgun when he should be working out the old over-and-under. And how many times have you gun nuts heard: "Give me a 12 gauge for home defense. The only thing a handgun is good for is to fight your way to your rifle..." Anyone ever actually shoot someone with a shotgun? And birds don't count as someone's. 00Buck can and will stop a man intent upon raining death and destruction on you and yours, but if he's holding, or close to, one of you and yours you are shit out of luck. Or if he's standing more than 15 feet away, he'll grimace but keep on coming. Been there, done that. When possible, slugs are always the better stop-and-don't pass go remedy for sociopathic behavior. Just be sure you can swing the long gun in an enclosed space and have it ready for use on the nightstand. The best immediate response for home defense is, and shall remain, something that fires a projectile that has a terminal expansion of close to an inch in diameter and will not take down the walls.

And shotguns and black rifles are damned difficult to carry in a concealed fashion when you and the family are away from the long guns.

If you disagree with my description of the farmer-hunter-woodsman mindset, then tell me why, when 88% of all rural households are stocked to the rafters with shotguns or rifles, do these people continue to vote for liberal politicians.

Because it is a totally disparate way of thinking. Look at Pennsylvania, please. And Upstate NY. And most of the Midwest. They revel, you see, at being hicks of the first order. And when those same rafters come crashing down...think of the poor guys at Powerline not knowing that their state was going to go heavily for Kerry...they kneejerk a miscalculated, feeble protest, when it's far too late to do anything of consequence. But they do give good amazement. To them, pronounced shock IS a response.

So where is the army of Goliaths when we need them?

In this country, you see, it is the government that is supposed to bear the David moniker. And you can look it up.